Louise Bourgoise’s iconic sculpture will make its way to Sydney as part of Sydney International Art Series returns for 2023–24.
The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) will present a comprehensive exhibition of works by French-American artist Louise Bourgeois from 25 November 2023 to 28 April 2024.
Among the works in the show is the nine-metre-tall bronze Maman (1999). Constructed from bronze, steel, and marble, the sculpture is a tribute to the artist’s mother, a tapestry weaver who Bourgeois described as ‘deliberate, clever, patient, soothing’—traits she compared to a spider.
Art Gallery of New South Wales director Michael Brand said, ‘we are proud to bring Maman, the largest spider sculpture ever made by Bourgeois, to Sydney for the very first time, and to be showcasing the extraordinary breadth of the artist’s practice, which includes fabric sculpture, works on paper, bronzes, works from her series of Cells, mechanised sculpture, and more.’
The exhibition will be held in the Gallery’s new North Building, expanding into the South Building forecourt and the Tank, previously a World War II fuel bunker.
Exhibition curator Justin Paton said, ‘Bourgeois is an artist of extremes, of opposed yet intertwined impulses—obsessed with the complicated and contradictory truth of our feelings towards ourselves and others.’
